Torah
שְׁמוֹת
Exodus
Slavery, a departure, a mountain, and then a very long building project.
What is in it
The first half is the story most people know: oppression in Egypt, a reluctant leader, plagues, the night of Passover, the sea, and Sinai. The second half turns to the tabernacle and describes it twice, once as instruction and once as execution, in detail that surprises first time readers.
The repetition is not padding. The book spends its final chapters on how a people who have just been freed build somewhere for God to be present, and it treats that construction as the point the escape was for.
If you read one chapter
Exodus 3
The bush that burns without being consumed, and a name given as a riddle.
Passages worth knowing
- Exodus 3:13 to 15The name, given in a form that resists being pinned down.
- Exodus 12The instructions for Passover, given while the night is still going on.
- Exodus 14The sea.
- Exodus 20The ten commandments, in their first version.
- Exodus 32The golden calf, forty days after the mountain.
Questions to sit with
- 01
Moses objects five times before he goes. What is each objection actually about?
- 02
Why does the book spend more space on the tabernacle than on the escape?